


When I Hear It Pass

by couriervictor



Category: Katana ZERO (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Implied Drug Use, M/M, it's not happy sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 18:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18628711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/couriervictor/pseuds/couriervictor
Summary: Once you've had Chronos in your blood, it's stuck with you forever.





	When I Hear It Pass

“I feel sick.”

Dragon peered up and across the table to where Zero sat looking forlornly at his food. It was almost endearing, for just a moment, but he wouldn’t say that.

Dragon huffed. “What? Had only protein paste for so long you can’t eat real food anymore?”

At least it got Zero to laugh. Dragon almost wouldn’t have thought it possible if he hadn’t heard it in person. But it faded all-too quickly, and Zero pushed his plate away from him before standing up.

“I’m going to lie down,” he said simply, and disappeared from the kitchen.

Dragon sighed and tried not to feel the unbearable weight in his chest. He scraped his and Zero’s abandoned meals into the garbage, and left the apartment as quietly as he could. 

\---

The war ended ten years ago, yet somehow always felt like only a week. Time dragged and slowed then sped again, wavering in form, and coming to rest. Sometimes Dragon didn’t know if any of it was real; he could be dead back in the jungle, with the chronos eating his brain for eternity and giving him a life he only wished he could have.

At times, he wanted to die. When Zero kissed him, he wanted the chronos to stretch the moment into eternity again - and then the moment was over, and he was on Zero’s couch, and Zero walked in soaked in blood and empty-eyed.

In the end, had it been fair of him to let it go?

\---

“I feel sick.”

Dragon peered up and across the table to where Zero sat looking forlornly at his food, but this time, the sensation of deja-vu was so sickening he almost threw up _himself_ , then and there.

“...S-sorry,” Dragon mumbled, swallowing the feeling. “Cooking has never been my strength, I suppose.”

Zero laughed. Dragon wanted to take the sound and cherish it forever, somehow knowing he’d never hear it again. This time, when Zero left to lay on his couch, Dragon didn’t leave, and instead sat at the table, letting the hours pass with his face buried in his hands. 

He didn’t want to lose this again. He _couldn’t_.

\---

Zero walked in, soaked in blood and empty-eyed. He let his sword fall to the floor, and for a moment only stood there, seeming disoriented.

“I made your tea,” Dragon said quietly. Zero, snapping back into reality, only nodded and muttered a _thank you_ as he shuffled to the kitchen.

Really, Dragon couldn’t blame him for what he did. For most people, the closure never came. Chronos was like that, giving and taking in equal force. 

“You don’t have to keep doing this,” Dragon mumbled as Zero came to the couch, laying down and placing his head on Dragon’s lap. “It’s been over for a long time.”

Zero was quiet, so Dragon let him sleep.

\---

_Get out of here. I’ll handle this._

Seeing Zero’s face was a punch to the gut - okay, _more_ than that, if he was honest - but he couldn’t say anything. Zero looked ready to kill, kill _them _\- and that perhaps was the worst part of it. Did Zero hate him for leaving him behind, or did he not remember him at all?__

“Right,” he finally said to Seventeen, before he fled for the second time. 

__Zero could kill them both, given the chance. Would that be better? Would that have been better?_ _

_He is not the Dragon._

Time slowed and sped up again. This was his one chance; Zero had opened an opportunity and he needed to take it. Was it karmic that Zero tried to carry that name as well? Perhaps. 

_I am._

__In a moment, he had V in his grasp, and Zero was running, like he himself had seven years ago. That was fine. This time, he couldn’t stop to think._ _

__\---_ _

_I feel sick._

__Zero looked at him with worry as his thoughts swam and vision blurred, and then he hit the floor._ _

__“Dragon?!”_ _

_Fifteen?! We have to go--_

__“I feel sick.” Zero was covered in blood and it dripped onto his food. Well, no wonder--_ _

_He’s already dead!_

__“It’s been over for a long time.”  
This time, Zero looked up at him, then sat upright and pressed a kiss to his lips. _ _

__Time slowed._ _

__Stopped._ _

__Sped again._ _

__“Dragon?!”_ _

__Shaking, Dragon pushed himself up from the floor and Zero rushed around the table to help him. Suddenly, he wished he’d died seven years ago, and never had to feel this. The chronos, the… everything. It blurred together._ _

__“Lie down,” Zero mumbled, dragging him to the couch. “...It was probably the fish heads, huh?”_ _

__Dragon laughed, and then sobbed._ _

__\---_ _

__“You’re leaving New Mecca, aren’t you?”_ _

__Zero nodded silently. The rooftop was quiet and the night cool, and amidst everything, it almost felt peaceful._ _

__“I want to go with you,” he continued._ _

Now Zero looked surprised.  
“I thought you had business here yet,” he asked. It was true, yes, but… he’d seen Seventeen die after saying those words to him, _i’m too tired for revenge_. He’d seen Zero’s death, too, both ten years ago, and a week from now, if he let it. 

__“It’ll never end,” Dragon sighed._ _

_I feel sick._

_He’s already dead._

__“I don’t want to lose this again.”_ _

_It’s been over for a long time._

__“Alright.”_ _

__

__Zero pulled him into a kiss. When Dragon opened his eyes, he was already gone._ _


End file.
